I spent most of 1973 in London, which for this South African was nothing short of gig heaven. Here are some of the most memorable (for various reasons). I wonder if anyone else was at any of them.
Top Marquee gigs:
1. Sharks
2. Average White Band
3. Roy Buchanan
4. Robin Trower
5. If (great jazz rock outfit)
6. Chicken Shack (but even then I realized that Stan Webb had become an anachronism)
Memorable stadium gigs:
1. Sly & Family Stone, Edgar Winter’s White Trash with Ricky Derringer, Kinks, Canned Heat, Lindisfarne (White City Stadium – all great)
2. Pink Floyd (Earl’s Court Stadium – for the audio-visual effects, not the music)
3. Jethro Tull (Wembley Stadium, memorable only because it is the only rock gig I have ever fallen asleep in. Robin Trower was support act)
Rainbow gigs:
1. Mahavishnu Orchestra (no explanation needed)
2. Family (mainly because of the singer’s microphone abuse and the fact that the supporting act was an American girl band called Fanny)
3. Tom Paxton (only because of my folk-loving Americans girlfriend who dragged me there)
Gigs where I can’t remember where they were:
1. Procol Harum supported by none other than Kevin Coyne
2. Paul McCartney and Wings (memorable only in the sense that I know I was there but cannot remember a thing about the gig, except that the support was Brinsley Schwartz)
3. Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, among many groups that I liked then but don’t like anymore
My two favorite places in London were the Marquee and the little ticket office on Shaftesbury Ave. just near Piccadilly that sold concert tickets. I was mortified visiting London in later years to find both not existing anymore. The Sharks gig is perhaps my favorite. I was already familiar with Chris Spedding’s recorded work with Jack Bruce. He remains my favorite guitarist through many changes of taste.
Rigid Digit says
Sharks returned this year with a mighty fine album (Killers Of The Deep)
Moose the Mooche says
Paul Cook on the right I assume. Bless ‘im.
Tahir W says
Yep, ordered this as soon as I heard about it. Cookie on drums, who would have believed it?
Moose the Mooche says
He’s only about 2/3 years away from having played with everyone on the planet.
Colin H says
A terrific thread starter, Tahir! Certainly one to drag us from the depths of Barge-gate.
Obviously, I HAVE to ask you to tell us more about the Mahavishnu concert.
Tahir W says
Well the Orchestra were the classic lineup including the great Billy Cobham on drums, technically the best drummer I’ve ever seen, similarly for the rest of them. John asked for a minute’s silence at the beginning to, as he said, make it “more satisfying for us and for you”. I suppose maximum contrast intended between the silence and the mind-blowing mayhem that followed. One of the striking things that I’ve never seen at any other gig was the way that the band continually broke up into smaller improvisational units. So for a while it was two of them, say drums and bass, then it was three, say violin guitar and keyboard, and so on. But any which way the intensity never let up. I wouldn’t say this is my favorite form of music, but then what form of music is it? Like nothing else.
Before I saw them I had bought a copy in Cape Town of The Inner Mounting Flame and I had also bought a copy of John’s Extrapolations, a real jazz classic for anyone who’s never heard it, with Oxley on drums, Surman on sax and I forget the bass player now. But none of that could have prepared me for the Orchestra live. There are some things that are a unique experience and for me that was up there.
Colin H says
Wonderful stuff, Tahir – thank you! Brian Odgers was the Extrapolation bassist. I imagine that Jethro Tull were performing ‘A Passion Play’ in full when you saw them?
Tahir W says
You got it!
Colin H says
Controversial at the time, I believe – wasn’t it the case that they played it in full before the album had been released, hence it was 40 minutes of whimsical bafflement all round before a few greatest hits at the end?
Moose the Mooche says
Brian was the star of many great* limericks, I believe.
(*these things are relative)
Junior Wells says
I think Colin might have just fallen in love with you @Tahir-W
Rigid Digit says
Never got to visit The Marquee when it was in Wardour Street.
Did get to the Charing Cross Road venue twice though (The Quireboys were superb, and V2 were distinctly unmemorable)
Tahir W says
At Wardour street anyway you could sit within touching distance of the band. Can’t imagine what it was like to sit that close to Hendrix, for example. One thing I found out though, no matter how close you sat to a great guitarist you didn’t really learn how to do it by watching their fingers. If only it were that easy …
aging hippy says
Re Roger Chapman’s mic stand abuse. I saw Family a number of times including at the Marquee (Wardour St) where, on that occasion, getting close to the stage was an act of utter stupidity. Mind you the place was so small even those at the back couldn’t have felt that safe. Health and safety? Those were the days.
Moose the Mooche says
My biggest gig of 1973 was in Hedon Road Maternity Hospital. I had no hair and cried and pissed a lot, like a 9lb GG Allin.
retropath2 says
I only once made it to the Marquee, Swansong Records letting it be known that “one” of their acts might be playing.
The Pretty Things were great.
SteveT says
I probably saw Chicken Shack and Robin Trower the same year. Chicken Shack was a double bill with Savoy Brown at Birmingham Town Hall. Can’t remember where I saw Robin Trower probably Birmingham Odeon but fuck was he boring. A really unimaginative guitarist. Give me Roy Buchanan any day.
Also saw Mahavishnu Orchestra but for some reason thought it was a year earlier.
Colin H says
Naturally, Steve, you must tell us your Mahavishnu tale.
Re: Stan Webb – was there a time when he *didn’t* seem like an anachronism?
mikethep says
Wasn’t it Stan Webb who had a really long guitar lead so he could go walkabout in the audience in a desperate attempt to appear interesting?
aging hippy says
Chicken Shack played a gig at my college and Stan Webb held court in the dressing room afterwards telling tales of the great old blues legends. All a complete load of bollocks I later discovered.
Moose the Mooche says
Nick Lowe supporting Paul McCartney? Afterwordgasm!
Colin H says
Let’s hear your If story, Tahir. We don’t hear enough about If these days. They featured Whispering Bob Harris on sax and maraccas for a while:
nickduvet says
The great Dick Morrissey on sax and flute.
Q: on which other 70s prog act’s album did he play?
Tahir W says
Well If were just a very good improv band. I already had an album by them, with a kind of silvery cover. Don’t know what happened to it. I was with my girlfriend, who was herself a flautist, and she dug them even more than I did. Then later I wanted to take her to see the Average White Band, whom I’d already seen, I told her they were better than If. She didn’t believe me and – bummer – when we got to the Marquee AWB had cancelled, so I lost the chance to prove it to her. She was also with me when I saw Sharks, but wasn’t nearly as impressed as I was. I thought they were going to be big, but I’m always wrong about that kind of thing. No not always, I heard Katy Perry on the radio singing I kissed a Girl and said to myself this girl is going to be BIG. I got that right, without much pleasure.
On a more recent trip to London I saw a band at the Barfly called the Guilty Ones who I thought might do pretty well – never heard of them again. And on a previous visit I saw the LA outfit The Bell Rays at the Monarch (same venue) whom I thought were going to be monstrous. They also faded.
attackdog says
Marquee, 100 Club, Ronnie Scotts – all within spitting distance. Did anyone here ever see anyone at Ronnie Scotts? Anyone worth mentioning?
I ask because in the v late ’70’s/early ’80’s Ronnie Scott’s ‘upstairs’ used to host almost any band (or so it seemed to me). I depped in a band at the venue around that time. I think their ‘style’ would have been described as ‘progressive’, but I distinctly remember thinking it was really shite.
Did anyone else here play with or see any bands ‘upstairs’ at Ronnie around that time? If so, who did you see?
retropath2 says
I went Upstairs at Ronnies, not an euphemism, once. Some samba band. Left. All I recall.
aging hippy says
I went once. Didn’t stay long. Really Shite were playing that night as well.
Peanuts Molloy says
I also went Upstairs at Ronnie’s once, in the late 90’s. The band was proficient but not memorable. What I do remember is warm overpriced cans of Boddingtons and sticky carpets.
However, another time I arrived late and caught the last four or five songs by Betty Carter, which was magic.
Later, Ronnie Scott’s in Birmingham was a good but short-lived venue. Amongst others I saw two great acts: George Melly with John Chilton’s Feetwarmers, and Nils Lofgren with his brother Tom. @retropath2 may have been there.
Mousey says
I saw the Floyd at Earls Court, and Procol Harum a few times, maybe not in London?
I think Paul McCartney and Wings were at Hammersmith Odeon? Brian Ferry was in the audience, lurking by himself at the bar
Colin H says
No, Brian doesn’t lurk, he lounges (louchly).
Junior Wells says
Talk about spoiled for choice and giving Heppers 1971 was the beginning of time argument.
1973, I was 16. Had opened the batting the previous year with Deep Purple/Free/Manfred Mann and ver Zep . But Feb 1973 was the Stones at Kooyong opening with Brown Sugar and showcasing Exile and Sticky Fingers.
Mousey says
Yeah they came to NZ too on that tour but I left in Dec 72 so missed them, and they didn’t play liv the whole time I was in the UK – up to mid 74. It was the post Mick Taylor era – I remember reading in the NME that Wayne someone had definitely joined. Anyway by the time I arrived back from my hippie trails in mid-late 74 and found civilisation in the form of a record shop in Paris – there was IORAR leering at me, still one of their best IMHO
Junior Wells says
yes unfairly dissed, that album
Matthew Best says
Procol Harum were supported by Kevin Coyne at the Royal Festival Hall on the 12th December in 1973. Setlist here: http://www.procolharum.com/setlist_festival_731112.htm
retropath2 says
And I think I saw them at the Dome, Brighton, that same tour. It was my first gig, not counting a 6th form school trip to se Steeleye Span.